Late last night, I visited Centripedal, the blog of fellow 9rules member Mike Papageorge. His post, Video from Hautacam, TDF 2000 has a YouTube video of the 2004 Tour, where Lance Armstrong shreds the field on a climb in stage 10, Lourdes-Hautacam. Lance reduces a 10:35 deficit the breakaway leader, Javier Ochoa had, down to just 41 seconds at the finish. Wow.

Then I hit YouTube to search for Tour videos, including the classic moment from the 2001 Tour, where Lance gives Ullrich "the look" before kicking in the afterburners to take the stage at L'Alpe D'Huez, eventually winning his 3rd Tour:

Next, the 2003 Tour, where Joseba Beloki crashes out on a sticky tar road (still makes me sick to see that crash), forcing Lance to take it off-road, barely evading the oncoming racers to join the peleton:

Or the scene on Luz-Ardiden, where Armstrong's brake lever caught on a spectator's bag, dropping him, his chain and pedals causing problems, and the attack that followed in his the 5th Tour win:

2003 is still my favorite Tour, because Lance had to fight for that 5th win, getting it by a minute or so, unlike most of his other multiple-minute Tour wins.

I have a feeling Tour de France 2006 will be much more like 2003. There is such a wide field of competitors this year, so the battles will be close until a leader emerges. Who will that leader be? Basso? Ullrich? Hincapie? Who knows! But it sure will be a blast finding out. :-)